ONE can only assume that the Portsmouth players had read on the journey north that Milan Baros had contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Either that or their defence mistook the dark shadowy figure lurking at the back post for Gary Glitter.

No matter, their decision to grant the Czech striker five free yards of space to nod home a James Milner free-kick from inside the six-yard box was baffling but thoroughly welcome.

It was a crime labelled as "horrendous" and "scandalous" by manager Harry Redknapp, who must have watched the video in horror as three of his men stood toe to toe with Kevin Phillips, Gavin McCann and Aaron Hughes as they waited for Milner's delivery from the left edge of the box to come over.

And there was Baros. Completely by himself. Like the fat, spotty 15-year-old at a school disco.

The ball duly arrived, pinpoint it was too, and Baros planted a simple header across what can only have been a puzzled Dean Kiely.

Assistant boss Roy Aitken, standing in for manager David O'Leary, said afterwards that it was a move Villa had been working on in training and that McCann's run had taken out some markers.

But a closer inspection shows there was no movement really, from McCann or anyone. And the net result was the worst defending of a set-piece you will ever see at any level from Cub Scout upwards.

Where does this first home win of 2006 leave Villa?

The Charlton Athletic of the North, as they shall be known after O'Leary's comments last week that the two clubs were intrinsically linked in everything but name and history, are up to 14th place and safe.

Another one, or perhaps two, victories should mathematically seal it. Not that avoiding the drop should ever really be on the agenda for a Villa manager, of course.

Aitken was cheery enough. "Onwards and upwards" was the sum of his press utterings. "We can only go up,'' he mused. He had good reason to be upbeat. Villa deserved the long-overdue home win. And it was a massive one too.

With a relatively easy run-in and some winnable home games, they must still be looking at the West Hams and Wigans and thinking that an eighth or a ninth place might just be possible if they can win six or seven of their remaining matches. True, they far from sparkled for most of this match. So that's a big 'if'.

But their form in the final 10-15 minutes, when Milner in particular cut loose and could have helped himself to a couple of goals, showed the level they are capable at times of producing.

Portsmouth, on the other hand, are down. They were truly shocking. They have some highly gifted individuals but as a unit they were as poor as any side seen at Villa Park in quite a while.

It was a strange game that Villa could easily have lost because Thomas Sorensen made four good saves. Three of which denied visiting skipper Gary O'Neil - the first of which, a fingertip first-half save of a 15-yard bullet shot was particularly crucial.

Without playing well until those latter stages, Villa could just as easily have rattled in four or five. One positive is that Baros has developed a habit of scoring in matches where he doesn't do a fat loss else.

Villa carved out seven good scoring chances and should have gone ahead early on when Steven Davis combined with Baros to put Phillips clean through, but Kiely did well.

Milner fired across the goalmouth and wide before an incredible long-range lofted pass from Gareth Barry allowed Phillips to beat the last man with a fine first touch only to see his chip clip the outside of the post. That would have seen the end to any confusion over the Goal of the Season.

Baros came close to a second minutes after his opener when he fired inches over the crossbar after being played through by Milner. Then, in the second half, Milner chested down Davis' cross but saw his close-range shot deflected over.

Milner was at it again with two stunning chances late on when he sent a right-foot shot narrowly wide of the far post, then fired a tremendous left-foot screamer inches over the top corner.

In the final minute Phillips must have thought his day had finally got better but he was denied by an electric save from Kiely before Barry sent the rebound wide with an overhead kick.

Villa's already stretched defence had done well, especially considering Jlloyd Samuel went off early with a virus. Substitute Ulises de la Cruz was cheered on to the field on an extremely rare appearance which he enjoyed, while Wilfred Bouma - on his first start for 10 weeks after a knee injury - looked absolutely solid and ready to rumble.

And yet, with all that had happened against Manchester City still in the memory, the world stood still when dangerman Lomano Tresor Lua Lua wriggled free of Hughes with five minutes remaining only to shoot straight into Sorensen's arms.